By Mari Kane, AlterNet For eons, cannabis has been ingested for the treatment of common and chronic ailments, but now, the march of technology is propelling wacky tobaccy into a brave new century of pharmaceutical development. Scientists around the world are studying not only whole, smoked marijuana, but also pure extracts that would make Louis Armstrong blush. The fruits of their labors could hit European pharmacies as soon as next year. The leading-edge cannabis pharmaceutical company is the publicly-owned British firm, GW Pharmaceuticals. Their Cannabis Based Medical Extracts (CBME) have proven extraordinarily safe and effective in relieving medical conditions such as neuropathic pain and muscle spasms with effects occurring after 15-45 minutes depending on the patient's condition. The active ingredients in cannabis are Cannabinoids and the most potent ones are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabinadiol (CBD). GWP has separated various Cannabinoids to determine which work best for specific ailments. Clinical trials have shown, for instance, that appetite was most improved with pure THC, but CBD also had an effect. They found the THC/CBD mix to work especially well for sleep improvement. © 2003 Independent Media Institute.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3900 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Research Explains Why Most People Are Happy With Their Lives WASHINGTON — Surveys conducted in the United States and around the world consistently show that people are generally happy with their lives, even for those with physical and mental disabilities and people without much money. Researchers reviewing several studies on autobiographical memory and happiness have found that human memory is biased toward happiness and that mild depression can disrupt this bias for good over bad. The findings are published in the June issue of Review of General Psychology, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA). In their article, W. Richard Walker, Ph.D., of Winston-Salem State University and colleagues find two causes for people’s recollection of the past to be positively biased. The first cause, according to their review of the research, seems to be due to the simple fact that pleasant events do in fact outnumber unpleasant events because people seek out positive experiences and avoid negative ones. Across 12 studies conducted by five different research teams, people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and participants who ranged in age from late teens to early 50’s consistently reported experiencing more positive events in their lives than negative events. The other process at work involves our memory system treating pleasant emotions differently from unpleasant emotions. Seven studies reviewed by the researchers provide support for a fading affect for negative emotions. Pleasant emotions have been found to fade more slowly from our memory than unpleasant emotions. One mechanism for this uneven fading may involve a process known as minimization. In order to return to our normal level of happiness, we try to minimize the impact of life events. This minimization process – which occurs biologically, cognitively and socially -- is usually stronger for negative events than for positive events. © 2003 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Depression
Link ID: 3899 - Posted: 06.24.2010

John Travis Whether it's the whisper of a lover or the shouts of rapper Eminem, the hearing process works the same. Sound waves bend lashlike projections on cells within the inner ear, and these so-called hair cells respond by sending electrical impulses to the brain. Conventional wisdom holds that once damaged, hair cells in people and other mammals don't regenerate. But by using a virus to deliver a gene into the inner ear, scientists have now coaxed the ears of adult guinea pigs to sprout new hair cells. "It's the first time anyone has shown new hair cells can be grown in a mature mammalian ear," says Yehoash Raphael of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who led the study. Copyright ©2003 Science Service.

Keyword: Hearing; Regeneration
Link ID: 3898 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Human infants babble more precisely and baby birds sing better when they are engaged in positive social interaction with someone who cheers them on, according to a recent study. Previously it was thought that baby birds and humans only imitated their vocal cheerleaders, but the study suggests infants are also learning from non-vocal reactions to their sounds. The paper, published in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mentions baby birds sing a so-called plastic subsong, which is the equivalent of human baby gibberish. Copyright © 2003 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 3897 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By KATIE HAFNER ALBANY, Calif. The tumor, a subcutaneous growth the size of a Ping-Pong ball, must be removed. Dr. Tom Reed, the surgeon, puts on his gloves. His assistants have administered the anesthesia and shaved the patient's chest. Precise and efficient, Dr. Reed makes a cut no longer than three-quarters of an inch and gets to work. The mass he extracts is almost perfectly round and self-contained. The operation, which took less than four minutes, produces remarkably little blood. "He's so quick there's no time for blood," said Steve Gardner, a colleague of Dr. Reed's who has entered the operating room. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 3896 - Posted: 06.08.2003

HANOVER, NH – Whether someone is looking directly at you or not when they are angry or afraid has an effect on how your brain interprets those expressions, says a group of Dartmouth researchers. In their study, the researchers found that the direction of another's gaze influences how your brain responds to fear and anger expressed by that person, specifically in your amygdala, which is the area in the brain that regulates emotions, detects potential threats and directs emotional behavior. Published in the June 6 issue of Science, the study reports that when viewing pictures of angry expressions, people exhibit more amygdala activity when the angry person in the picture is looking away. When viewing expressions of fear, the amygdala is more active when there is direct eye contact. This study is the first to demonstrate that gaze direction is an important signal in how we perceive facial expressions, according to the authors. "Some people may be surprised to learn that the amygdala actually responded most when threat cues were ambiguous," said Reginald Adams, a former Dartmouth graduate student and the lead author on the paper. "This may indicate that the amygdala perceives heightened threat in uncertainty, or that the amygdala has to work harder to make sense of the ambiguity surrounding the threat."

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 3895 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Neuroscientists at NYU and Harvard identify cells in the hippocampus that signal new memory formation Neuroscientists at NYU and Harvard have identified how the brain’s hippocampus helps us learn and remember the sights, sounds and smells that make up our long-term memory for the facts and events, termed declarative memory. By studying the activity of neurons of the hippocampus, the scientists have illuminated how the brain signals the formation of new associative memories, a form of declarative memory. These results provide some of the strongest direct evidence to date for learning-related plasticity in the hippocampus. The research findings are reported in the June 6 issue of the publication Science in a paper entitled “Single Neurons in the Monkey Hippocampus and the Learning of New Associations.” Since the 1950s, scientists have been aware of the link between the hippocampus and memory, but knew little of how this association manifested itself in neural activity. The NYU research team, led by NYU post-doctoral fellow Sylvia Wirth, NYU professor Wendy Suzuki and graduate student Marianna Yanike, examined the neural correlates of associative memory formation by using electrodes to monitor the electrical activity of individual neurons in the brains of monkeys performing an associative learning task. The neural and behavioral data was analyzed using dynamic estimation algorithms developed by post-doctoral fellows Loren Frank, Anne Smith and professor Emery Brown at Harvard University.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3894 - Posted: 06.24.2010

For decades, scientists have disagreed about the way the brain gathers memories, developing two apparently contradictory concepts. But newly published research by a team of scientists at Rutgers-Newark's Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN) indicates that both models of memory may be partially correct – and that resolving this conflict could lead to new approaches for the treatment of memory disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease. The dispute has centered on how the hippocampus – a structure deep inside the brain – processes new information from the senses and stores it. Some researchers – such as Mark Gluck and Catherine Myers, co-directors of the Memory Disorders Project at the CMBN – have been proponents of "incremental memory," viewing the acquisition of memory as a learning process that occurs over time. "If you see thunder and lightning occur together once, that may be seen as a coincidence," Myers observed. "But the more often you see them happen at the same time, the more likely you are to remember them as related parts of one event."

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3893 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have discovered a drug which can help people with a potentially life-threatening sleep disorder - and which could even help heavy snorers. Sleep apnoea causes a person to stop breathing for up to a minute when airflow from the nose and mouth to the lungs is restricted during sleep. It can happen hundreds of times in a night. Sleep apnoea affects around 1% of middle-aged men in the UK. It is linked with an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and adult-onset diabetes. It can also be linked to behavioural problems and learning difficulties because people do not get enough rest. Sleep apnoea can only currently be managed using often uncomfortable devices such as masks or nasal prongs. But US researchers have found that an antidepressant called mirtazapine can significantly reduce the symptoms of sleep apnoea. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep; Depression
Link ID: 3892 - Posted: 06.05.2003

About one in one thousand babies born in the U.S. each year is completely deaf. Another two or three per thousand have some hearing loss. As this ScienCentral News video reports, researchers at the University of Colorado have found that the earlier hearing loss is discovered the better. When Elise Nowicki was about 7 months old, her parents, Brenda and Lee, started to suspect that she couldn’t hear. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 3891 - Posted: 06.24.2010

La Jolla, Calif.—Manufacturing motor nerve cells may someday be possible to help restore function in victims of spinal cord injury or such diseases of motion as Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease or post-polio syndrome, a Salk Institute research study has found. Salk Associate Professor Sam Pfaff and postdoctoral fellow Soo-Kyung Lee reported in a paper in the June 5 issue of Neuron that they constructed a detailed model of how stem cells are prodded, regulated and otherwise encouraged to become not only nerve cells, but specifically motor neurons that the body relies on to move muscles and limbs throughout the body. The study provides the first blueprint for the cellular factory that produces motor neurons from embryonic stem cells. It could eventually result in new treatments for spinal cord injury, and other diseases that affect motor nerve cells.

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease ; Stem Cells
Link ID: 3890 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Eating methylmercury contaminated fish causes problems in adults Warnings about methylmercury contaminated fish are not just for young children and expectant mothers, according to new research published today in Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source. Adults who regularly eat contaminated fish could find that their concentration, dexterity and verbal memory are impaired. The major source of methylmercury is diet, particularly large fish like shark and swordfish. The authors of this new research concluded: "methylmercury exposure at levels often encountered by adults in North America may be inducing adverse effects on neurobehavioral performance." Methylmercury damages or destroys nerve tissue. It affects the visual cortex and the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for controlling complex movements and maintaining balance. This new research challenges the assumption that adults are much less sensitive to its toxic effects than children.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Intelligence
Link ID: 3889 - Posted: 06.05.2003

Study published in Journal of the American Medical Association Washington, DC Hopes that naproxen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), or rofecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor, could slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been dashed as researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center report in the June 4 Journal of the American Medical Association that neither drug slows the cognitive deterioration that is the hallmark of AD. In addition, more adverse effects were reported in patients taking either drug as compared to the placebo group. In the first NIH-funded, multicenter, placebo-controlled study of its kind, the Georgetown researchers set out to test the efficacy of low-dose naproxen (sold under the brand name Aleve®) and rofecoxib (sold under the name Vioxx®) in slowing cognitive decline in patients with mild-to-moderate AD. Abundant laboratory and epidemiological evidence pointed to these two drugs as potential effective therapeutic agents, given that inflammation is a key feature of AD. Despite this encouraging body of evidence, neither drug held up under this new double-blinded, study. In the 351 patients enrolled in the 12-month study, placed either in the naproxen, rofecoxib, or placebo groups, neither active treatment had a beneficial effect on the mean change in score on the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog). This test measures memory, attention, reasoning, language, orientation, and complex motor function. In fact, patients taking rofecoxib experienced more rapid cognitive decline than the naproxen and placebo groups.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 3888 - Posted: 06.05.2003

— Neurons transmit chemical signals in a fleeting “kiss-and-run” process, which in large part determines how quickly neurons can fire, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers. The transfer of information between nerve cells occurs when chemicals called neurotransmitters are released into the synapse, the junction between neurons. Electrical impulses in the neuron cause tiny vesicles loaded with neurotransmitters to move to the tip of the nerve terminal where they are released. In an article published in the June 5, 2003, issue of the journal Nature, HHMI investigator Charles F. Stevens and Sunil Gandhi, both at The Salk Institute, reported that they have devised a technique that permits them to visualize individual vesicles after they have released their cargo. The new findings are significant, said the researchers, because they answer questions about the rate at which synaptic vesicles can be recycled. This rate determines how much information nerve cells can transmit. ©2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 3887 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An antidepressant has been found to help women by reducing menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes. The study of the drug paroxetine was funded by its makers GlaxoSmithKline. Menopausal symptoms are usually treated with hormone replacement therapy, which reduces flushes by 80 to 90%. But concerns have been raised about HRT, after a study suggested an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer, so doctors have been looking for alternatives. It is thought hot flushes occur when falling oestrogen levels affect the central nervous system's temperature control mechanism. Drugs including paroxetine had been seen to reduce hot flushes in women with a history of breast cancer. It is believed they worked inhibited the brain's reuptake of serotonin, a natural chemical that modulates mood, emotion, sleep and appetite. (C) BBC

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Depression
Link ID: 3886 - Posted: 06.04.2003

Are psychedelic drugs good for you? By John Horgan A year ago, hoping to dispel the postpartum gloom that had gripped me after I finished writing a book, I hiked into a forest near my home and pitched a tent under some pine trees. I spent that day and evening listening to the forest, scribbling in my journal, and thinking—all while under the influence of a psychedelic drug. The next morning I returned to my wife and children feeling better than I had in months. What I did that day should not be illegal. Adults seeking solace or insight ought to be allowed to consume psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. U.S. laws now classify them as Schedule 1 drugs, banned for all purposes because of their health risks. But recent studies have shown that psychedelics—which more than 20 million Americans have ingested—can be harmless and even beneficial when taken under appropriate circumstances. Citing this research, some scholars and scientists are proposing that the prohibitions against psychedelics—or entheogens, "God engenderers," as believers in their spiritual benefits prefer to call them—should be reconsidered. This legal issue has recently been brought to a head by a religious sect in New Mexico that is suing the United States for the right to drink a hallucinogenic tea called ayahuasca in its ceremonies. A federal court is expected to rule on the potentially momentous case any day now. ©2003 Microsoft Corporation.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3885 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JOHN LANGONE Slim to None: A Journey Through the Wasteland of Anorexia Treatment," by Jennifer Hendricks. Contemporary Books, $19.95. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, says the foreword to this book, which was published posthumously. They represent an "unrecognized epidemic" that afflicts seven million women and a million men in the United States, the writer says, and 86 percent of sufferers report its onset by age 20. Only half report that they are cured. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 3884 - Posted: 06.04.2003

The old brain has more tricks up its sleeve than researchers thought. In addition to two previously identified regions, a third spot in the mammalian adult brain can generate neurons, according to a new study. This particular patch degenerates in Parkinson's and other diseases. But whether the new-growth phenomenon plays a role in age-related illness has yet to be determined. Researchers have known for several years that adult mammals can grow new neurons, but the only parts of the brain that have been found to do so are the hippocampus, where new memories are made, and the olfactory bulb. Scientists have been hoping to find signs of new growth in the substantia nigra, a midbrain region mangled by Parkinson's disease, which trashes neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. But last year, researchers looking for such growth in adult rats found none. In the new study, Ann Marie Janson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues counted the number of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra of mice between 2 and 20 months of age. The team found that, over time, the number of neurons remained the same even though some neurons died. This suggested that the brain replaced the dead ones with new growth. The researchers then injected a dye that colors actively growing neurons into the brains of living mice. After continuously staining brains for 3 weeks, the team removed the brains and found about 20 new cells in each. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 3883 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scans hint connoisseurs respond differently to a tipple. HELEN R. PILCHER Appreciating fine wine takes brains as well as a practised palate and a florid vocabulary, new research suggests. In connoisseurs, a quick slurp seems to trigger a cerebral response that is absent in casual drinkers. It may help them to process and describe their tipple. The burst of activity is in the mid frontal cortex, a brain area involved in language and recognition, find Gisela Hagberg and her colleagues at the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, Italy. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3882 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHAPEL HILL - A new study links a protein discovered a few years ago at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with formation of scar tissue that occurs after injury to nerve cells in the brain or spinal cord. Such scarring apparently blocks neurons of the central nervous system from recovering after traumatic injury - inhibiting their axon filaments from regenerating and ferrying nerve impulses elsewhere, to other neurons and tissue, including muscle. Loss of nerve cell function and paralysis can result. The findings, published online today (June 4) in the journal Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, add new knowledge to a long-standing issue in neuroscience: why do nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system grow back after an injury such as a skin cut, but cells in the brain or spinal cord do not.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 3881 - Posted: 06.04.2003